


An Appreciation of Spontaneity

by myrcella



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humor, boy struggles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 07:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6696271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrcella/pseuds/myrcella
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Lily Luna Potter unconsciously categorizes words by their part of speech and struggles with the fact that Scorpius Malfoy is always seeking her advice on how to woo girls. Except this time, he claims it's not just any girl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Appreciation of Spontaneity

"Psst."  


Lily Luna refused to look up from her Charms homework, determined not to give him the satisfaction of winning this bizarre game he had started with her. She merely pushed a stray of red hair away from her face, flipping a page from her textbook with as much violence as her fourteen year old hand could summon.  


She heard a snort from just above her, but merely gritted her teeth and continued to pretend that she was actually comprehending the complex wandwork that a spell to dislodge airways demanded. At this rate, she might end up accidentally killing the examiner at the end of the year.  


But the voice persisted, varying from " _Psst_ ", " _Lily!_ ", and " _Baby Potter_ " for what Lily believed had been for half an hour now.  
  
(Truthfully, it had only been ten minutes.)  
  
The librarian, Madame Pince, turned to them, and for once Lily was glad for the woman's narrowed eyes and exaggerated finger wagging. The voice had muttered a quick sorry, and she assumed that she had won this hurdle. Maybe now he'll leave her in pe--  
A piece of parchment was forcefully plopped on top of her barely-written Charms homework. In large, green ink, a single word was haphazardly written across the surface. 

  
  
_LILY!_  
  
  
She slammed her textbook closed, earning another angry look from Madame Pince, and finally looked at the person sitting in front of her.  
Scorpius Malfoy merely grinned at the redhead, batting his grey eyes with as much innocence as a sixteen year old boy could muster, looking at her expectantly. Lily scrunched her eyebrows together and resisted the urge to lean over and punch him in the face, like some sort of muggle delinquent.  
  
" _What_ , Scorpius?" she hissed, so as not to attract Madame Pince's attention for the third time, and put a hand on her chest.  
"For once in my life, why won't you let me pursue my education in peace? I'm a little sick of your clingy nature, if I'm to be brutally honest."  
"You wound me, Lily. Words are powerful, don't you know that?"  
His voice was a perfect mixture of smugness and offense, and Lily was flabbergasted as to how he could combine emotions from opposite sides of the spectrum into one tone.  
  
"There's a reason for my adding the adverb 'brutal' in front of the word honest."  
He let out a soft laugh. Lily repressed the feeling of her stomach doing flips.  
"Okay, I deserved that. But you've got to hear me out."  
"Well, you've successfully distracted me from my weak resolve to actually finish my Charms homework, so go on." She tossed him his scrap of wasted parchment and rolled her homework closed for dramatic effect. He shoved the parchment into a pocket in his robes and leaned closer to her.  
  
"There's this girl," he began, and Lily instinctively rolled her eyes. Not again.  
  
There were many adjectives to describe Scorpius Malfoy, sixth year Slytherin. Intelligent. Irritating. Rather easy on the eyes. Irritating again.  
But of all these words that you could plaster on him, the most fitting one would be _flirtatious_. He always had his eye out for a pretty girl that looked like she would be willing to meet him in a broom closet during break.  
  
But nevertheless, irritating persisted to be a close second.  
  
And somehow, he always tried to find a way to rope Lily into his projects. Asking her opinion on what he should get as a present, what he should say after the first date--he asked her literally everything to make sure that he gets the girl wrapped firmly around his finger.  
  
Lily didn't even know why she kept on helping him.  
  
_"Maybe he's got you wrapped around his finger, too."_ Molly had suggested in their dorm once, barely glancing at her cousin as she painted her fingers clumsily with her non-dominant hand. Lily almost threw her pillow in indignation.  
  
She'd been repressing the memory ever since.  
  
"Who's the unfortunate dame?" She asked, keeping her voice steadily dull, like it usually was whenever he brought up another girl he was enamored with.  
"A Gryffindor this time. She's a little younger." He replied vaguely, leaning back into his chair.  
He never really answered her inquiries directly. She always asked him _who_ , but he always replied with _what kind_. She'd grown accustomed to his vagueness and learned to simply scan the girls within his vicinity after their discussions in order to discover their identities, but she persisted on asking _who_ all the same. Just in case he budged.  
  
He never did.  
  
"Younger? Ugh, that's a comparative adjective that's been said far too frequently as of late. You're starting to scare me, Scorpius."  
He waved off her negative comment dismissively, a proud smile still intact.  
"What can I say? I like my girls ripe." He ignored the groan escaping her lips.  
"You see, this girl I'm after--she's different. Not like the pretty airheads I'm always getting involved with--she's actually hard to please. She barely gives me the time of day."  
"Ah, a wise one at last." Lily drawled, pushing another stray of red hair away from her face.  
"And this girl? I'm absolutely smitten with. I'm downright besotted. Very much seriously in love with. So I want to confess in the grandest, most romantic way possible, but I'm not really sure if she's into that."  
  
Lily felt her heart tighten at how his eyes glazed over at the thought of her but dismissed it entirely. She was _not_ jealous of this mysterious, exotic girl. Who cares if she was different from his other escapades? She inhaled deeply.  
"You sound really into her. Have you known her long?"  
  
He sighed a little dreamily.  
  
"I've known her for a while. But back to my problem: how should I tell her? Dramatically drop onto one knee and confess my undying love? Write her a free-verse and let a first year recite it to her? I want it to be as dorky as possible, to woo her with my sheer genuineness and adorable personality." He pressed his lips together in thought.  
  
Lily Luna couldn't help but smile a little.  
  
"You should do whatever your gut says, I guess. If you're actually serious with her, you shouldn't have to consult me. My services are strictly for the casual fling type. Never for the horrendously in love category."  
"Oh, come _oooooon_ , Lily. You have a type. You know what you want. How would you want a boy to confess his undying love for you?" Scorpius pouted, leaning even closer. She looked to the side to avoid his pleading look.  
"Let me think." She leaned back into her chair and closed her eyes, imagining the perfect confession. The boy she imagined vaguely resembled a certain handsome blond sixth year sitting in front of her, making her frown at what her subconscious was implying.  
  


_How would I want a boy to confess his undying love for me?_  
  
Suddenly it clicked.  
  
"Spontaneity." She deduced, opening her eyes and staring at him with triumph. He raised an eyebrow.  
  
"I know the noun, but not what you mean."  
  
Lily smiled even wider.  
  
"The cutest, most adorable way to confess to a girl of such perfection is to be purely spontaneous. If she barely gives you the time of day, then I reckon she's fully aware of your incalculable conquests--"  
"Incalculable is pushing it," he quipped with an offended pout, but he immediately shut up to let her continue.  
"So using your usual dramatics won't work. Neither will your pick-up lines about how she has _'the stars in her eyes'_ or how she's _'not like the other girls'_. You've got to be raw, bare-faced Scorpius. The nerd underneath all that bravado." She concluded eloquently, a teasing grin on her face. Scorpius smiled at her warmly.  
"Then how do you suggest 'raw, bare-faced Scorpius' should operate?"  
Lily Luna stood up, Charms textbook and unfinished homework in hand. She smiled innocently, tilting her head to the side. Scorpius looked at her with a suspicious look on his face.  
"I dunno. That's for you to work out on your own."  
  


* * *

 

"Jeez, Lily. I know you've got a thing for Scorpius, but looking for him every time the sixth year Slytherins come out isn't exactly _discreet_." Molly poked the side of her head gently, causing Lily to turn to her exasperatedly.

"I don't have a thing for him! And I'm waiting for him to make his move, that's all. I want to see how he tries to woo this exotic girl all by himself."  
  
It had been two weeks since their conversation in the library. Lily expected him to act in a matter of days, but nothing had transpired. In fact, he'd shown no indication that he was even brainstorming for something--he didn't even bring it up in the brief times that they would greet each other. Had she dreamt of their library encounter? No, with the way that Madame Pince had started acting around her (tutting sharply whenever she entered the library, glaring all throughout her stay), it had to have happened.  
  
Then why was he pretending that he wasn't bursting for a confession? Had he lost his nerve? Should she have given him concrete advice after all?

"If I hadn't known how smitten you are, I'd say that you were just dying for him to get a love life." Molly shook her head, a smile on her lips.

Lily opted to block out whatever nonsense Molly was spouting for the rest of the day.

In fact, she needed to stop thinking of Scorpius Malfoy and his elusive confession. Gryffindor's Quidditch match against Hufflepuff was fast approaching, and soon enough James was going to demand grueling hours of training until the day arrived. Even if she was his dearest baby sister, he never let her off the hook. Even when she affectionately called him “Jamie” to change his mind.

The exhaustion kept her mind off flirtatious boys and grey eyes flecked with blue for an entire week.

As well as her Transfiguration homework due Friday.

On the day of the match itself, Lily woke up feeling as if she needed to vomit. She denied any sort of food that Rose was dangling under her nose, trying to keep her nerves in check. She'd clipped her bangs back for the game, and the feeling of wind meeting her bare forehead was unusual.  
"Lily, I love you. And as the sister you never had, I demand you eat lest you want to drop dead on the Quidditch pitch." Rose said, pushing the toast closer to her face.  
Lily gave her cousin a feeble glare, before sighing and biting into the buttered bread moodily. Rose smiled triumphantly, rubbing the top of her baby cousin's head proudly.

Two hours later, Lily could feel her ears ringing as she was hoisted in the air, the cheers of her housemates deafening. She grinned widely, raising her arms in celebration.  
Gryffindor narrowly won against Hufflepuff with a mere twenty point advantage, but nevertheless it meant that they only needed to face Slytherin next in order to win the cup. She couldn't wait to wipe the smug grin off Scorpius' face when that day arrived.

Speaking of Scorpius, Lily looked around the pitch, looking for a familiar mop of blond. She found him standing a few feet away from the Gryffindor celebration, a proud smile adorning his lips as he watched her quietly. Lily felt her cheeks grow warm at his solemn expression, and gave the boy a sheepish thumbs up.  
He cupped the corners of his mouth, inhaled deeply, and yelled loud enough for the crowd to stop short.

_"LILY LUNA POTTER, YOU'RE THE BEST THING THAT'S EVER HAPPENED TO ME! I'M A HUNDRED PERCENT SURE I'M MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU."_

Every eye was on him. There was a tense silence, but he seemed unfazed. He still had his hands raised, a wicked grin plastered on his noticeably flushed face.

Unceremoniously, Lily squeaked, lost her balance, and ungraciously fell into the crowd.

When she marched up to him with her face so red she might as well been a walking tongue of fire, she could only stutter one thing that her mind was able to process as she poked him harshly on the square of his chest.  
  
"Y-You could've just used _Sonorus_ , you idiot!"

Scorpius laughed before pulling her into a bone-crushing hug.


End file.
